The No. 9 Gators came out victorious in their first dual match of the year, defeating Baylor 6-1.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida women’s tennis claimed their first victory of the 2024 spring season on Saturday afternoon. The Gators defeated the Bears 6-1 on their home court, with a sweep in the double’s category, and five singles wins.
Florida secured the double’s point over Baylor with an immediate 6-1 victory from duo Bente Spee and Alicia Dudeney over Sierra Berry and Brooke Thompson, followed by a 7-5 win from freshman pair, Malwina Rowinska and Qavia Lopez. Rowinska and Lopez defeated Baylor’s Zuzanna Kubacha after being tied up at five all to give the Gators a 1-0 advantage heading into singles play.
In singles, Florida won five of their six matches against Baylor. Alicia Dudeney tallied the first singles victory for Florida with a quick 6-0, 6-2 final score to defeat Zuzanna Frankowska. Rachel Gailis followed with a dominating performance over Isabella Harvison, 6-3, 6-1. The Gators also found victory in Sara Dahlstrom with a strong outing against Isabella Harvison. Dahlstrom took the first set 6-4, then closed out the second 6-3.
The final two singles contests for the Gators were back and forth battles, both resulting in tie-breakers. Emily De Oliveira came back against Sierra Berry after trailing 6-3 in the first set, taking the second set 6-4, and forcing a match tiebreaker. De Oliveira ultimately pulled ahead of Berry with a 10-6 final score in the match tiebreaker to secure another point on the board for Florida.
The final win for the Gators came from Qavia Lopez in another match tiebreaker against Zuzanna Kubacha. Lopez came out strong and secured the first set 6-3 before Kubacha came back to win the second 7-6. The two went head-to-head in a ten-point match tiebreaker with Lopez pulling through to take the tiebreaker 10-6 and claim the match.
Carly Briggs met a tough opponent from the Baylor roster falling short to Miska Kadleckova. Briggs was edged 6-0 in the first set, making her determined to take a few games off Kadleckova in the second. After a hard-fought set, Briggs managed to secure three games off Baylor’s No. 2, to put the final score at 6-0, 6-3.
The Gators will be back in action next Saturday, Jan. 27 when they welcome Florida International to the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex for an 11 a.m. ET matchup.
Quotes from the Court:
Head Coach Roland Thornqvist<https://floridagators.com/sports/womens-tennis/roster/coaches/roland-thornqvist/1513>
On the first match of the season:
“I was happy to see how we responded because we got pushed, obviously, it’s our first match of the year and I think we flinched at times when we had opportunities to close out but these are things we’re going to learn from. In general, this is an excellent first match for us.”
On the overall team:
“This team has a chance to be special, and that’s why I’m kind of glad we got pushed. Expectations are high, but we have to become a better serving team. This team has a lot of great ball strikers. We’re going to be in all return games, because we were very good at returning, but we have to find ways to shorten points when we serve.”
Singles: (Order of Finish: 6, 3, 2, 4, 1, 5)
1. Emily de Oliveira (UF) def. Sierra Berry (BU) 3-6, 6-4, 10-6
2. Miska Kadleckova (BU) def. Carly Briggs (UF) 6-0, 6-3
3. Rachel Gailis (UF) def. Isabella Harvison (BU) 6-3, 6-1
4. Sara Dahlstrom (UF) def. Danielle Tuhten (BU) 6-4, 6-3
5. Qavia Lopez (UF) def. Zuzanna Kubacha (BU) 6-3, 7-6
6. Alicia Dudeney (UF) def. Zuzanna Frankowska (BU) 6-0, 6-2
Doubles: (Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3)
1. Alicia Dudeney/Bente Spee (UF) def. Sierra Berry/Brooke Thompson (BU) 6-1
2. Malwina Rowinska/Qavia Lopez (UF) def. Zuzanna Kubacha/Isabella Harvison (BU) 7-5
3. Sara Dahlstrom/Rachel Gailis (UF) def. Miska Kadleckova/Danielle Tuhten (BU) 7-6
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